My proposed research examines the previously unknown film music of the Argentine composer, Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983), who is considered one of the leading musical spokesmen of the Americas. In my study, I aim to show how Ginastera's cinematic works contributed to the human experience by aesthetically inscribing the Argentine search for identity. My work will demonstrate how Ginastera's motion picture music constructed a pastoral trope of the Argentine landscape and how the composer's distinguished North American colleague, Aaron Copland, significantly shaped his work through parallel representations of the American West. To support this project, I request NEH funding to help cover the cost of travel to the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland, where Ginastera's film music manuscripts are stored. I will publish my research in an article-length study and a chapter in my forthcoming book on Alberto Ginastera and the musical construction of Argentine pastoral space.